Jo Jo

I have had relaxed hair for most of my life. My mother got "fed up" with my thick natural hair and the amount of money she would spend "buying combs". My moms side of the family has thick wavy long hair, what some people would call "good hair' I suppose. My sister got most of my moms hair , while I got a mixture of both my mom and father's hair.  I LOVED my relaxed hair! I thought having natural hair was one of the WORST decisions you could ever make. I did not like the look of natural hair and thought it was too "kinky" to wear.

 my relaxed hair with gel

I first had thoughts of wearing natural hair around three years ago. I was fed up with the frying, scalp burning, straightening combs, flat irons (I am DEADLY afraid of those things!). The second reason was I went away to school in Switzerland and there were not many hair salons that catered to black hair. And the few that did weren't very good. I would go to one in neighbouring France to relax and within two weeks it would be natural again! #frustrating. After much research on the net I decided to lock my hair. I saw how beautiful locks can be so I started to natural out my hair, much to my mothers annoyance.

I wore my hair in twist outs most of the time, and braided it, which caused my relaxed hair to break because I was not moisturizing AT ALL, plus I lived in a cold climate.

my hair after I pulled out the braids. I had NO idea how much breakage I had until I washed it after.

I was advertising the food by the way. In case you were wondering.

Because It was the first time I was wearing natural hair I HAD NO IDEA WHAT I WAS DOING! it was a DISASTER! I had a lot of breakage, whenever I washed it it would be all tangled, and I had no idea how to style it. It was very frustrating, and I wanted to relax it again. I came back home and in December '09 and my mom had me relax it again #epicfail . I had A LOT of new growth and I relaxed it....*sigh* smh... that was my last relaxer.

 

Being on this journey has taught me patience and acceptance of myself just from my hair, and I am grateful for that. I continue to learn, develop, and make mistakes but ultimately never turn back and quit, which is something I normally do. Keep on reading to see how things turn out !!